This is actually Truth in Television, as this method was used by Frederick Barbarossa's soldiers to climb a crag during the siege of a bandit stronghold on the Adige in northern Italy, as recounted in Otto von Freising's Gesta Friderici. (Spears were used in this case.)

The protagonist does this to Sanosuke Sagara while fighting him and his BFS, all the while lecturing him on how the sword he uses is so big and heavy that it can only be swung down or sideways, making it very easy to predict.

In the manga, one of Enishi's techniques involves sticking a sword upright in the ground, jumping off the hilt to achieve higher elevation, and hanging on to a tassel on the sword so he doesn't have to leave the sword behind.

Kung Fu Panda: Tai Lung is imprisoned on a pillar at the base of a cylindrical cavern, isolated from all doors and elevators, only accessible by a drawbridge. When he unlocks his restraints, the guards try shooting him with really big crossbow bolts, but he dodges them all, picks up the bolts, and kicks them into the cavern walls, creating a series of springboards to reach the elevator and upper walkways.

One of the Adorable Evil Minions in Despicable Me uses a plunger during the credits to try to reach the screen across a chasm. Another minion jumps nearby, causing the plunger (and the minion on it) to fall.

Stefano the sea lion pulls this off in the climax of Madagascar: Europe's Most Wanted.

Films — Live-Action

Giselle throws a sword into the side of a building for Robert to use this way in Enchanted.

In The Matrix Reloaded Morpheus uses a sword stuck in the side of a truck as a perch. Balancing on the sword handle and the side of another truck, he grabs the Keymaker off Trinity's bike, throws him up onto the top of the first truck, then jumps up after him. And whips off his Cool Shades. He's Laurence Fishburne, he can get away with it.

Happens in The Warrior's Way. The Colonel thrusts at Lynne; missing her and getting his sabre stuck in the wall. Lynne uses his sabre as a step to retrieve her own sword, which is stuck higher up in the wall.

Kasumi in DOA: Dead or Alive throws a katana to stick in a wall, runs on the backs of her clansmen, then jump to the sword, and uses it as a springboard to jump over the high walls of the palace.

Duel to the Death uses this trope in a humorously illogical way during the final duel: each combatant jumps high up into the air, then puts his sword beneath his feet and pushes off in midair to Double Jump.

Ladder of Swords: Exactly What It Says on the Tin; the main character (a down-on-his-luck circus performer on the run from the law) climbs a ladder made of swords both metaphorically and physically. He uses it as one of his acts and shows his skill off to his love interest.

Literature

Teppic in Pyramids mentions that using knives for this tends to be impractical. You have to find a place just tight enough for the knife to get properly stuck, and you usually end up losing knives when you do it. Of course, he has to do it at the end of the book in order to assassinate a pyramid.

A sword is used to cross a canyon in Lancelot, the Knight of the Cart (circa 1170).

In Cue For Treason, Peter Brownrigg uses half a dozen daggers to climb the side of an Elizabethan wooden house, to enter it surreptitiously from the river side.

A particularly nasty variant is used in Anthony Horowitz's Power of Five series: as part of a test to find out whether the protagonist is The Chosen One, he has to climb a ladder of swords... blade up. Apparently the last guy to attempt it only got to three swords, but it's OK, they managed to save some of his fingers.

In The Long Ships, Toke uses spears to climb the palisade of an enemy stronghold.

Inverted on one of the CSI programs, in which the victim turned out to have been kicked to death by someone who'd been wearing tree-climbing spurs strapped to both ankles.

Done in an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess. Xena is scaling the wall of an enemy stronghold and, when it looks like she is about to fall short, her allies fire arrows into the wall that she uses as rungs to scale the last few feet.

In one level of Psychonauts, the player has to swing on swords attached to a spinning wheel in order to advance. This is made harder by the fact that the swords are only thrown by enemies. The player has to dodge in order to get the swords to land properly.

Kratos climbs walls many times using his swords in the God of War series.

One of the three uses for ninjato swords in Tenchu: Shadow Assassins (along with breaking locks and last-resort defense) is jamming them into certain walls to help scale them.

Mega Man 1 and Mega Man 5 have the Magnet Beam and the Super Arrow, respectively. The Magnet Beam shoots a beam that stays suspended in mid-air, creating a platform for you, and the Super Arrow shoots an arrow that sticks into a wall to create a place to step.

Web Comics

The Order of the Stick: While fighting Vampire Durkon, Roy Greenhilt borrows the High Priestess of Odin's spear. He misses his foe when throwing it, but it stays stuck in the wall and Roy then uses it as perch to reach the upper walkway of the temple.

Web Original

Rachel uses her hammer as a standing stone on a wall while waiting for the fight to reach her in Dead Fantasy.

Monty Oum must like this trope. The Meta uses his (bladed) gun as a climbing tool (after performing a Blade Brake maneuver with it) during the penultimate Oum-animated fight sequence in Red vs. Blue: Revelation. Note that this maneuver normally requires two such sharp objects...

Western Animation

The Simpsons: In "Simpsons Bible Stories", Bart (as David) uses a pair of corn on the cob holder's from Goliath's (Nelson) giant cob to climb up the side of a castle, by stabbing them into the wall and pulling himself up.

Happens a few times with Ulrich's katanas; sometimes for himself, sometimes for other characters.

Everyone also seems to use William's BFS as a platform whenever he gets it stuck in a wall.

In the title sequence for Hanna-Barbera's Lippy The Lion And Hardy Har Har, Lippy, holding Hardy by the collar, scales a tree up a ladder of spears that have been thrown at the pair by angry natives. Unfortunately, the last of them is being held by a giant gorilla.

The Day My Butt Went Psycho: In "Basic In Stink", Zack fires a series of plungers on to the Butt-squatch before running up them to kick the Butt-squatch in the face.

Adventure Time: In "The Eyes", Finn's sword gets stuck in the wall. Jake uses it as a springboard to jump off and attack the Ice King.

Community

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